Category Archives: Be Your Own Beloved

May 8, 2013

A New Be Your Own Beloved Workshop: Creating Self-Care Policies!

A few months ago I came to the place in my creative business where I realized I needed some ‘company self-care policies’, to add some pro-active self care into my week. You can read about that realization here. I quickly realized that while I did need them within my business, I needed to create some life self-care policies too!

Since then, I have been filling my journal with thoughts about self-care tools:

how some things feel like self-care and actually drain me
how to figure out what the best way to nurture myself
what self-care tools aren’t working for me and I need to let go of
what are the simple ways I can cultivate more self-care
how to create ‘policies’ and make self-care non-negotiable yet not shame myself if i can’t fulfill that ‘policy’ during the week

Then one day on one of my self-care journalling Monday mornings (totally one of my self-care policies) I realized that all of these spillings, questions and answers where a collection of really useful tools that might be able to help YOU figure out what self-care policies are right for you.

So I decided to create a new course in the Be Your Own Beloved series! It is a 2 week course (14 days in a row) inviting you to discover some new tools to help you create more space in your life for YOU to thrive. In the first week I have 7 different, really unique ways to approach discovering the self-care tools that will help you cultivate more self-care time in your life. This isn’t a one size fits all approach at all. In the second week we put these tools into practice.

Of course, being a Be Your Own Beloved class there is also a self-portrait element, but it is completely beginner friendly. This course is a great sidekick to the original Be Your Own Beloved class but can also be taken on its own! As with the original #beyourownbeloved class we are going to have a beautiful community energy in this class and will be able to share our self-care discoveries and get inspired by one another.

Oh, and it is super affordable too!

Head on over here for more info about Be Your Own Beloved: Creating Self-Care Policies!

May 7, 2013

Freedom in the Forest

On Sunday I went out to the forest on my new vintage bike, to this spot by a creek that I love to take photos at. Not a soul came by the whole time I was there taking photos which absolutely rocked (and is so rare in the city).

I was shooting a photo for this months She is Three Triptych and brought along a scarf to use as a prop! I remembered these photos by the wonderful Brooke Schmidt taken when she participated in one of my courses, and got inspired to try doing some Brooke-inspired throwing around of the scarf!

Oh my goodness…it was actually super challenging!

Seriously, probably over 100 shots to get a few I loved BUT every single shot was fun to take. I hadn’t brought my remote but I’m sure it would it have made it a lot easier (or maybe not, that scarf moved wild and free and I never knew what it was going to do when I threw it up in the air)!

It was also fun to use the Gorillacam app on my iPhone. You can set it to take a whole lot of photos at once so I set it to 30 shots and just danced around and had fun!

Here are some of my favourites outtakes that came out of this adventure and peek over at She is Three today to see the one that got included in this month’s Triptych!

May 6, 2013

New Wheels & a Lesson in Confidence

On Saturday I was heading home from ‘The Drive’, the main street in my neighbourhood and I stumbled across a yard sale.

There she was, shiny and red, cute and vintage. Unlike any other bike I’ve seen.

I asked the price, sure that once I heard it I would easily be able to pick up my groceries and walk home without it.

But then she said it, and it was wicked cheap. So I put down my groceries and gave her a spin.

3 gears,

pedal brakes

big tires

and she’s a folding bike

She rode like a dream and after that trial ride she became mine. I was smitten.

I went home, got my helmet and then headed out to the seawall, a bike path that weaves around the waters edge of this coastal city. I was worried at first that something was wrong, that there was a reason she was so affordable and that I’d need to do repairs but it was such a beautiful ride.

It reminded me of my bike at my parents house that I ride when I’m visiting for cottage time in the summer. Somehow pedal brakes and minimal gears just feels like summer to me, when you just can’t help but coast more and feel happy.

And then my gremlins a.k.a. my inner critic appeared.

Now, my gremlins and I have a long history and after lots and lots of work (and putting them in their place) we’ve kind of been at peace lately.

But there they were rearing their meanie selves again.

I’d bike past store windows and look at my reflection, much like I used to and judge how wide I looked from the side walking by a store window. Did I look like a fool on this bike? As I big girl, do I look silly riding this little bike? Is this bike too funky for me?

This went on for about 5 minutes and my gremlins ranted and raved and sucked the pleasure out of the moment. I remembered how icky it felt to have my gremlins taking over. So I had a conversation with myself that went something like this:

“Do you feel a sense of freedom on this bike?”

Yes.

“Does this bike make you happy”

Yes.

“Does this bike feel really comfortable to ride”

Yes.

“Will this bike allow you to be more free in getting around the city?

Yes.

“Will this bike be able to come on travel adventures with you because it is foldable?”

Yes

“Does this bike make you want to put on vintage dresses and ride it with style?”

Heck yes.

Then this bike is meant for you, and you have to honour it by rockin’ it with confidence.

And I looked up.

Towards me were biking two guys on tall bikes, then a couple on a flourescent pink tandem bike. A few minutes later a recumbant bike and then yes, even a unicycle. Then more and more, people of all body types and ages riding bikes by me. As each of them passed me I had to smile as it felt like the universe was listening and reminding me of this.

You can rock anything if you gather up the confidence to.

But when we get so caught up in our inward chatter, we miss the opportunity to feel really a part of a community that celebrates uniqueness if we just open up to noticing them.

So I let my shoulders relax.

And smiled the rest of the way home. People smiled widely back at me, not because I was riding a funky bike but because I was riding it with a gigantic happy smile on my face.

I wanted to share this with you in case you happen to adventure outside your comfort zone today and have an unexpected visit from your own inner critic. Look up, look outwards and see the beautiful brave diverse world around you and let yourself shine within it.

P.S. A new session of Be Your Own Beloved starts very soon…and is totally an experience where we get the opportunity to say NO to our inner critic, choose our own path and look up and see an amazing community of women ready to encourage & support us!

May 2, 2013

The New Path

I ended last year feeling lost and this year quickly shifted into something I didn’t expect. Something that made that lostness feel like it made sense. This year I’m feeling a clarity of purpose that I’ve never felt. I think sometimes we naturally feel deeply lost or scared just before birthing something new, right? Of course that is hard to remember in the midst of the lostness.

I realized that I haven’t outright told you about this new path, though I’m sure you are seeing the changes in the courses offered and the new title of this site. The new path is all about being your own beloved and cultivating self-compassion through self-portraiture.

Something happened this February when I offered Be Your Own Beloved. There was something within me shouting ‘This!!! This is it. This is what you need to focus on. This is how you can be most of service in the world. This is your IT’. I just felt a clarity I had never felt really in my life let alone in business. For so much of my life I felt like I had no clue what my purpose was so to feel it, to feel a little taste of clarity kind of blew me away.

In these last few years of teaching e-courses it has been incredible to teach such a wide variety of classes. Everything from making videos to seeing photography through the lens of the chakras. A super wide range. So, its been a bit of a process to realize that by feeling so focused on #beyourownbeloved and truly be able to be of service through it, I needed to stop offering all the other classes. So this is what I wanted to tell you today.

It has been an honour to help people see that they can make videos and get past their fear of technology, it has been amazing to help people see that they are artists and photographers and explore self-portraiture through discovering tools of photography but I truly feel so clear that what really lights me up, what really feels like what I can most be of service in….is helping people see their own worthiness and help them bring more self-love into their lives through their cameras. That it isn’t about our cameras or our photography skill or how ‘perfect’ of an image we can get.

It is about telling our story.

It is about showing up in front of the camera seeking that self-love.

It is about resiliency.

It is about using the tools that might feel like the ways that negative self-talk may most be prevalent (like seeing images of ourselves) and taking the power back, reclaiming that tool as a way to cultivate self-love.

Its all about the love.

There are new classes coming, but they are all focused around self-portraiture, self-love and self-care and this feels really right.

So I wanted to share this with you in case you were awaiting the next Montage session or hoping the Chakra class was coming back (I’m even still on the fence about continuing to offer YAYOM…its my baby, my first born and I may still offer it but way less frequently than I have been). These courses may appear again in a self-paced or E-Book form though!

I hope you’ll join me in continuing to explore seeing ourselves with kindness through our cameras!

April 30, 2013

Being Your Own Beloved

A new session of Be Your own Beloved starts tomorrow and I can barely wait to send these love notes to the participants inboxes for the next 28 days. Love notes with a daily tool to try on the path to seeing themselves with kindness.

This course comes right from my heart, from all the tricks and tools I’ve been using along the way to healing my own self-image and learning to be kinder to myself. I first offered this class if February and I so hoped that these tools would resonated with the participants. What happened floored me. The experience changed peoples lives. I mean, I know these tools changed mine and that had been my hope but to see the transformations and unfolding that happened in those 28 days was amazing. I was a proud e-course mama and it has been truly an honour to offer this class.

This new session starts tomorrow and I’m adding even more powerful tools to the class (also because a fair number of people who took it the first time are back for more)!

We’re gathering in the Flickr group already for class, so I wanted to mention it to you in case you felt drawn to join us this time and to spend the next month in a beautiful community experience while at the same time focusing in on YOU and creating more self-kindness in your days and seeing yourself differently.

This is for you who don’t think you are photogenic and are never in photos but want to change that story.

This is for you mamas who need tools to reconnect with yourself.

This is for you who believe that you need to make changes before you take photos of yourself (let the love start now).

This is for you who want to change the story of the way you see yourself.

This is for all of us.

I wanted to share a few testimonials with you and experiences of some past participants and folks I’ve done Be Your Own Beloved workshops with.

Hear about Kyeli Smith’s experience of taking self-portraits in her amazing video and how her world was rocked by taking Be Your Own Beloved!

On her blog yesterday Andrea Scher shared a moment when she remembered a tool from taking Be Your Own Beloved and had a moment of self-kindness.

Read about the amazing Anna Guest-Jelley’s experience of taking Be Your Own Beloved here!

It has been really powerful to hear these stories of how the experience of taking a self-portrait each day for a month was for the month was for people and I wanted to share these with you as I have a feeling they might resonate with you!

Alana shared how the course affected her as a Mom:

When I became a mom, I felt like I took a step back internally, to let my daughter shine in front of me. At the time, I didn’t feel like I was shrinking, or playing small – I was completely wrapped up in how amazing she was. She was (and still is) the center of my life. Fast forward a few years and that piece of me that took a back seat wanted to be seen again. I wanted to be seen as a whole woman, not just as a mom. This reemergence had been happening slowly, over time, but it was taking Be Your Own Beloved that helped me to physically see myself again as a whole, beautiful, complete being.

There’s something deeply moving and heart-opening about looking at yourself through the lens of the camera. Vivienne taught the practice of self-portraiture in such a gentle way, it allowed me to release many of my fears and self-judgments and to see from the outside the shine I feel on the inside.

-Alana Sheeren

Here is also a glimpse of the experience that Rachael is presently having in the You are Your Own Muse class, but I wanted to share it today as I feel like it is one that people are experiencing in BYO Beloved too and that some of you might really relate to:

“I kept thinking that I would have to wait until I lost a lot of weight before I’d be happy with any photos of myself. With this now old mindset (thank you Vivienne!) I’ve done just about everything possible to remain out of photos – it’s really quite sad, as there is a gap of 10 years with very few photos of me. Vivienne – I am not exaggerating by saying that your class has been incredibly powerful and transformative for me, so thank you oh so very much for having this space for all of us to express ourselves and look at ourselves differently.”

-Rachel Krebs

Class starts tomorrow and its not too late to join in.

Gift yourself with the kindness and transformation that folks are having from being their own beloved and come join us!